A movie star may have spotted you at Northgate Mall these past couple months. But you probably didn't notice.

Chinese actress Tang Wei is in Seattle filming "Late Autumn," a drama also starring South Korean heartthrob Hyun Bin that's set to wrap Monday. Like her co-star, Wei couldn't step on the streets of Hong Kong without being mobbed. So when she's not filming or sneaking into Asian restaurants, she likes to sit in and around Northgate and bask in her anonymity.

"Free, free, free!" the film's producer, Joo-Ick Lee, said from the production office on Westlake Avenue. "It's like a temporary holiday."

Since filming began in January, "Late Autumn" has filmed in many of Seattle's central neighborhoods. It's caught the attention of neighborhood news sites and inspired a bit of a citywide mystery: Why is a South Korean movie shooting in Seattle? And why are they filming everywhere?

On Thursday, Lee explained why: because Seattle is a character in his story.

'Seattle is the third role'

"Late Autumn" is loosely based on the popular 1966 South Korean film "Full Autumn," about a romance between a woman on leave from prison and a man on the run. Asian filmmakers have reworked this premise before, but producer Lee and renowned South Korean director Kim Tae-yong are the first to take it out of Asia.

They picked the U.S. because they want to have a global reach, and no place is more familiar to the movie-watching world. They settled on Seattle after years of scouting. The city is unusual, hard to replicate, Lee said. Beautiful, but not "too pretty." Full of character, but not full of itself.

"There are few places in the U.S. where you cannot find anyplace else like it," Lee said. "Where do you find another place and tell it is Seattle?"

The film's characters speak in English, by the way, with only some Korean and Chinese. Wei's character grew up in Seattle and returns on special leave from prison for her mother's funeral. When she meets Bin's character, a transplant, she winds up sharing her memories. So they go to the Pike Place Market, the Fremont Troll, even Seattle Center's Fun Forest.

The "Late Autumn" crew filmed there just as the longstanding amusement park was being taken down for the last time, strengthening the film's themes of broken dreams and uneasy redemption.

"Seattle is the third role," Lee said. "You cannot separate Seattle from the story."

At first, Lee had no trouble taking Tang Wei and Hyun Bin to Seattle's Chinese and Korean restaurants (Bin "loves" the Chinese food here, Lee said). Then word began to spread in the local Asian community. One night, at a Bellevue restaurant, Lee looked out the window and saw a big group of fans had gathered outside, waiting for Hyun Bin. Bin thought of sneaking out, then saw an 11-year-old girl waiting in the crowd. It was getting late.

"He went out and autographed for all those people so she could go home early," Lee said.

Shooting on "Late Autumn" is set to wrap on Monday. Variety reported that the film was aiming for a premiere at this year's Cannes Film Festival, but Lee, who's spent five years developing the project, doesn't want to make any promises.

"I'm so grateful to the city of Seattle, because they've been so cooperative," Lee said, looking at his office window to Lake Union.

Bin and Wei will likely miss the anonymity when they return to South Korea and China. Lee -- he'll miss it all.

"If I were to live here, I would rent some house on Whidbey Island," he said. "I'd go into the U-District for coffee, then go downtown for a movie."